Mercedes-Benz Debuts the X-Class Pickup in South Africa

Take a good look, because Americans will probably never see it in person.

At an event in Cape Town, South Africa today, Mercedes-Benz officially unveiled the X-Class mid-size pickup truck. Mercedes-Benz has been eagerly tweeting about the truck with the admittedly clever hashtag #XtraClass.

It looks to us like a more subtle version of the X-Class concepts we saw last October. We saw a classy white concept with big rims and a more off-road design with big, meaty tires and a winch. The production version kind of splits the difference and looks like, well, a Mercedes pickup truck. It falls in line with the current Benz design language, which certainly isn’t a bad thing.

It’s actually based on the Nissan Navara and Renault Alaskan which have been out internationally since 2014. For some reason, this modern truck hasn’t come to the US to put the aging Frontier out of its misery. The X-Class will share factories with the Alaskan in Barcelona, Spain and Cordoba, Argentina. Mercedes-Benz did a nice job taking this platform and making the X-Class their own. Nobody is going to mistake this truck for a Nissan.

This would be a welcome entry into the US midsize truck market which has been heating up over the past few years. Our most luxurious vehicle in this segment is the GMC Canyon in its higher trims and those are still quite a different style of luxury than what Mercedes-Benz has to offer.

With decked out full-size pickups getting fancier and more expensive all the time, it would be surprising if there wasn’t a market for something similar in the midsize class. Last we heard, it's not sounding good for X-Class availability in the US, but we’re holding on to hope for the future.